Saturday, December 10, 2016

1.0 out of 5 stars This book sets up a false binary from the start ...
By PinkGandhi on December 9, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionThis book sets up a false binary from the start and then goes to prove its case on these terms. It is for the simple minded.

How fortunate that there are so many simple-minded people who troubled to read it.

I also have some other book-related news. As you know, the 500-page early edition of A SEA OF SKULLS will be out soon, most likely next week. There will be two ways to acquire it:

Buy it for $7.99 at the Castalia store. We will send out the 900-page final edition when it is completed in the late spring, which is when the paperback and hardcover editions will also be released. There will be no print editions of the early edition.

Buy it for $5.99 at Amazon, then update in the spring.

We expect most people to prefer Amazon and we will absolutely be willing to send out updates to everyone who buys from Amazon and send us a copy of a purchase invoice dated December 2016, but we are aware that there are people who are liable to fall through the cracks that way.

Take this with a grain of salt, of course, given that an author finishing a novel is among the least trustworthy of judges, but the initial internal reviews of ASOS have been positive. I was determined to avoid both the sophomore slump and middle-book syndrome, as well as GRRM's patented perspective-character metastasization, and it would appear that I have been successful in doing so. ASOS is a harsher book than ATOB, but then, that is because it provides a glimpse into some harsher cultures than that of Amorr.

61 Comments:

While I am not VFM, I felt the need to assail this phony review. I just finished reading "Cuckservative" yesterday morning. Thanks for making me pessimistic about the future of American polity. Accumulating my pennies for SJWAL. I cannot wait to get that! Thanks for all that you do! No sarc.

So is the early edition, for the most part, the first half of Sea of Skulls or is ti more complicated than that?

It's a bit more complicated than that. Two of the major perspective characters are near-complete, one is totally missing, one only has one chapter so far. It's more like 5/8ths. It ends at a reasonable double-breakpoint, it doesn't just stop right in the middle.

As far as story goes, it's no more "unfinished" than the average book two in a trilogy.

I have found that if you ask Amazon to do an update, they will at the very least make it so that people who already bought the book will be given the option of uploading the newer version. I think that's on the 'manage your kindle' page however.At least, that's what they told me, when I did an update once about 2 years ago.

Amazon's auto-update is the default for Kindle users. For users that have turned off that feature they will only know of updates by reviewing their "manage your kindle" page and in the case of users with hundreds of e-books, it is easy for updates to slip by unnoticed.

I suspect most readers of ASOS are regular readers of VP and will likely hear of the update here first.

Cut her some slack. She got to insert "false binary" in a critique. Isn't it cute. Much like when one of my Elementary writing students used "sumptuously" in her paper. The only difference is my student is 11 and used the term correctly.

Should I reread A Throne of Bones or is it easy to jump right into this one? It's been a while and I think I've forgotten some of the finer points of the conclusion to ATOB.

Throne was a pretty life changing book for me. It basically gave me a complete turn around on my perspective on modern Christian fantasy (I had sort of given up hope in the genre after reading Master Lord's other big epic fantasies). It also introduced me to this blog.

I've been waiting for this second outing in the world of Selenoth quite eagerly and I want to experience it in the best way I possibly can.

Amazon has deleted two of the 40 comments to PinkGandhi's review but not this one: "Take a cue from your name sake and starve yourself until the author changes the book to suit you." by Amazon Customer.

0 of 202 people found the following review helpful; that's more than reviewed the book.

Well, that escalated quickly. Two and a half hours to go from zero comments about her review to 242. Maybe not a record, but likely enough to make her email inbox feel the pain if her review is flagged to send her an email when comments are made.

A great thing to read while guzzling my morning tankard of coffee. Thanks. I needed a smile.

Evidently a dude. Color me honestly surprised.On the lists page it has its name as Alex Lovit. That's an unusual spelling of Levitt, and probaly indicates (((echoes))There is an Alex Lovit (PhD Hist U of Mich 2011), 36, who works for the Kettering Foundation.

Eh... Review is obviously fake, but it is kinda pathetic that you cannot tolerate even a single negative review of your book.Not to mention that inciting your fans to mass downvote a review and to harass its author like that might draw Amazon's attention and provoke them into action, sort of action that you probably wouldn't appreciate.

Brian Janson wrote:Eh... Review is obviously fake, but it is kinda pathetic that you cannot tolerate even a single negative review of your book.

Not to mention that inciting your fans to mass downvote a review and to harass its author like that might draw Amazon's attention and provoke them into action, sort of action that you probably wouldn't appreciate.

Hey, dumbass, there's a difference between an honest negative review and one that even you admit is "obviously fake." Since you have no problem with fakes, are we to assume you work for the Washington Post?

Brian Janson wrote:but it is kinda pathetic that you cannot tolerate even a single negative review of your book.It's not that the review is negative that's a problem. It's that it's fake. Surely you see that that's a problem for ANY writer on controversial topics.

Not to mention that inciting your fans to mass downvote a review and to harass its author like that might draw Amazon's attention and provoke them into action, sort of action that you probably wouldn't appreciate.If they do, it would be the first action Amazon has taken with regard to anything having to do with fake reviews.And the point is encourager les autres. The mass downvoting is to be expected. And so farI have seen no harrassment. Right now, I have enough information on this clown that I could literally make his life hell. Address, work history, wife's name, criminal history, you name it. But I won't. Because we don't roll that way. That's what SJWs do.

The basic problem here is that you are arguing for surrender in the face of assault in the name of being nice, and trying to propitiate authority.

Eh... Review is obviously fake, but it is kinda pathetic that you cannot tolerate even a single negative review of your book.

What is pathetic is your lies, gamma. This is far from the only negative review of one of my books, it is one of the very few to which I have drawn the attention of my readers and fans. Why? Because it is a fake review.

I don't tolerate fake reviews, especially not fake reviews that are attacks on me and my readers.

> Not to mention that inciting your fans to mass downvote a review and to harass its author like that might draw Amazon's attention and provoke them into action, sort of action that you probably wouldn't appreciate.

Really? And what action do you think Amazon might take regarding legitimate down voting and complaints of a fake review?

As for harassment, given that "she" couldn't even be bothered to read the book, what makes you think she'll read the comments?

Not to mention that inciting your fans to mass downvote a review and to harass its author like that might draw Amazon's attention and provoke them into action, sort of action that you probably wouldn't appreciate.

I'm the one being harassed here, sport. Amazon will take my side, not some jackass who is breaking their rules by leaving fake reviews of a book he has neither purchased nor read.

Doesn't matter if we're "harassing" or "inciting" or whatever word one chooses for an attempt to claim the moral high ground when they find themselves in a situation of their own making that turned out far worse than they imagined.

My old man used to tell me not to let my mouth write checks my ass wasn't willing to cash. Mouth, keyboard, the principle's the same.

VD wrote:Amazon will take my side, not some jackass who is breaking their rules by leaving fake reviews of a book he has neither purchased nor read.

That is assuming that Amazon will remain impartial in their judgment. For all we know, they might be as co-opted as Google is. You should assume that you are working in enemy territory here, instead of drawing undue attention to yourself and giving them openings.And, FYI, manipulating user reviews by inciting mass downvote campaign against a negative review IS against the rules, as is the bullying of individual amazon users. You gave them opening.

Remember that Goodreads fiasco, and there too obviously fake reviews of your books were against the rules... But it was not against them that staff reacted. Learn from your mistakes, instead of repeating them.

That is assuming that Amazon will remain impartial in their judgment. For all we know, they might be as co-opted as Google is. You should assume that you are working in enemy territory here, instead of drawing undue attention to yourself and giving them openings.

If you're going to try to convince me to stop posting notices of fake reviews on my blog, you may as well give it up now. I've been doing it for years. I will continue to do it so long as people insist on posting fake reviews there.

One of the more obvious 'tells' of the simple-minded is the appeal to popularity when confronted with his own banality. MPAI - banality is popular. But Cuckservative isn't simple-minded. It's more small-minded and crass than simple. It's like the beer on tap at Ockoberfest. It gets the buzz going but a Chianti Classico it is not.

Unknown wrote:One of the more obvious 'tells' of the simple-minded is the appeal to popularity when confronted with his own banality. MPAI - banality is popular. But Cuckservative isn't simple-minded. It's more small-minded and crass than simple. It's like the beer on tap at Ockoberfest. It gets the buzz going but a Chianti Classico it is not.

Secret King is really winning because he's Big-Minded, not Small-Minded like Vox. Screw sales numbers. Sales are a direct indication of low quality. Which, by inversion, implies bad sales numbers are indicative of good quality. And by that metric, well, our Anonymous Contributor has the BEST DAMN BOOKS ON AMAZON!Secret king is winning by losing. Or something like that...